In 1991, the 1st Annual Indian Land Consolidation Symposium was held in Pendleton, Oregon and was co-sponsored by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation (CTUIR), the First Nations Development Institute, and the Northwest Renewable Resources Center. The CTUIR had recently embarked on their "New Nation Project" whereby the Tribes were seeking to restore their original treaty homeland, and to address issues related to their allotted lands. They thought the best way to do this would be to network with other tribes who were in a similar situation and consequently organized the 1st Indian Land Symposium with a grant that they had received from Northwest Area Foundation. The Indian Land Working Group (ILWG) was an outgrowth of this first symposium, where attendees decided that tribal governments and Indian individuals should continue to share their knowledge and ideas on how to address problems stemming from mixed (Indian and non-Indian) land ownership of Indian homelands. The over 150 conference attendees moved to form the ILWG.

The goals of the Indian Land Working Group are to:

• Restore and preserve the native land base;
• Promote native use and management the land and resources
• Educate tribal communities about land restoration, use, and management options and models;
• Support native land policy reform at the local and federal level

The ILWG is comprised of a 13 member Board of Tribal representatives, individual Indian landowerners, and representatives of intertribal and national Indian organizations. The ILWG’s goals are achieved through a network consisting of the ILWG Board, tribal employees, individual landowners, and land restoration, realty, and probate trainers that exists throughout Indian Country. Our annual land symposium, land policy reform initiatives, trainings, developpemnt of land related training tools, and production of the “Indigenous Lands Reporter”- the ILWG’s quarterly publication all work together in achieving our organizational goals.